Profiting from Climate and Disease
We had a corrupt Dem governor in California who did private deals with the Texas energy company, Enron, which controlled electric grids and was making money for the executives by turning off power in the states they did “business” with. The result was that California recalled then-governor Gray Davis and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger because Mr. Davis was privately profiting from this and the folks in California didn’t like it. Arnold made his money off the overcrowded California prisons, but that’s another story.
Today, Texas is being overpopulated by folks wanting cheap housing (exodus from California) and big Tech. is moving there for tax reasons. Let’s face it. Texas is the Libertarians’ paradise.
Enter COVID-19 and Climate Change. Natural disasters, as we all know who have any kind of faith in actual science, don’t play well with the Libertarian lifestyles. Without a central government that takes care of everybody — no matter how rich and famous or “independent-minded” they might be — things can go down the toilet pretty fast, as we saw in the Enron deals.
So, with this “harsh winter storm,” we are seeing the shit-side of the bread in Texas. Their energy grid company (Griddy, or perhaps greedy) is not playing well with this emergency because their infrastructure is (obviously) set-up to make the most profit as opposed to being ready to assist in scientifically predictable natural occurrences. They don’t prepare for these events, in other words, as they lose money when they help the most folks instead of just helping enough to “get by” when the weather’s great.
This is the reason utilities, like power, used to be publicly owned municipalities. That way, everybody in the different counties and cities had a single entity that represented all of the public, and they didn’t have to answer to all the private interests who were playing games with the power grid, like Enron and the current “grid company” in Texas is doing.
The same deal with COVID-19 vaccine supplies. Without single-payer health care (better known as National Health Insurance or Medicare for all), we’re seeing the supply chains getting fouled-up big-time, so the insurance companies and local hospitals/healthcare companies can get their “cut of the action.” In fact, in California, there’s a recall effort (again?) of Dem Governor Gavin Newsom because of his handling of both the COVID vaccine effort and the opening of schools controversy.
I hope all my friends in Texas can literally “weather” this kind of storm, when companies aren’t prepared to help you because they care more about their own bottom lines. Perhaps our entire nation might take a look at what the good aspects of socialism can do to remedy these kinds of vital and necessary services to the beings called “humans.” Would they, might they even consider recalling the Texas Governor, Greg Abbott? Who knows, but I double-danged doubt it. y’all.